World War I in Vestec
Which war was worse? The first or the second? It's an absurd question. They say the last one. But just compare the number of dead on the memorials in our villages.
Nine men did not return to Vestec from the battlefields of the First World War. Their names are carved on a granite monument in the middle of the village. Some of them are forgotten and don't tell us anything.
But let our chronicler speak. At the urging of the village mayor Fr. Skřivan (No. 49), a worthy monument was erected in Vestec after the war. Almost all the citizens, the Socialist Youth Association, the volunteer firemen contributed. E. Rozum, who carried out the free construction of the memorial fence, contributed generously. It is further stated: To the honour of the citizens of Vestec, however, it must be recorded for eternal memory that the feeling for the suffering of one's fellow man was strong, and this despite the fact that many gift-giving strangers abused them for ketch purposes. People lived in constant fear of denunciation, and families whose members had fought at the front often had to face even more inhuman treatment by the state authorities.
The war ended in November 1918. Wounded physically and mentally, exhausted, disabled, with incurable malaria or frostbite, the soldiers slowly returned to civilian life, to their homes. I must stress "slowly". After all, some of them had been waiting for years. I'm thinking of the West German legionnaires. But we'll have more to say about their hardships and heroism in the next letters.
missing photo
Blanka Pašková, chronicler